<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Night Shift by Theonewhosawitall</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27770065">Night Shift</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonewhosawitall/pseuds/Theonewhosawitall'>Theonewhosawitall</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hawaii Five-0 (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dad Steve McGarrett, Gen, Hospital, Late Night Conversations, Night Visits, hospital room</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:13:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,006</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27770065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonewhosawitall/pseuds/Theonewhosawitall</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Grace is bored in hospital and visitor hours are up. Like that will stop Steve.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Steve McGarrett &amp; Grace Williams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>134</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Night Shift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grace flicked endlessly through the TV channels available to her. The hospital didn't have cable, let alone Netflix, and no one had thought to bring over her phone charger while visiting. The last thing she had managed to do before it died was text Steve that she was bored. She wasn't even sure that had sent. <br/>She would have saved her battery to call her parents in the morning, but boredom got to her. Besides, they would only worry and tell her to sleep. After all she had a head injury. The most important thing she could do was rest. But what good was trying to sleep when all she had done all day was rest. </p><p>This was the worst part of hospitals, she decided. Night time. When there was nothing to do but watch TV and nothing on TV but adverts. And in a private room like this she didn't have patients to talk to either. Visiting hours were over, and had been for ages.</p><p>The nurses had even ushered out her Uncle Max when he popped in to check on her. He was in the hospital anyway for odds and ends and when he heard that Grace was recovering from a heavy surgery upstairs he felt a duty as a doctor and a friend to come by.</p><p>Grace heaved a sigh and tossed the remote controls down on the bed as she dropped down onto it. <br/>This night was never going to end.</p><p><em>THUNK!</em> </p><p>Grace sat up urgently with a gasp. Her eyes searched the darkness by the window as she reached for the lamp. The heart rate machine beside her was beeping rapidly as she felt her pulse race. Something had hit the glass. She heard it. She blinked in surprise as her aching mind struggled to remember the name of what she could see through the glass.</p><p>"Is that... a ladder?" She muttered to herself. </p><p>A hand appeared into view. She yelped as it did. Then their head appeared too. Grace blinked in surprise. Steve's jaw was open and his tongue was curled to the corner of his mouth as he heaved himself up to the glass. Grace slid hesitantly off the bed and used her IV drip as a crutch to approach the window. Steve grinned at her as she opened it.</p><p>"Aloha!" He grinned.</p><p>"You're kidding me, right?" Grace snorted. </p><p>"Open the window!" Steve said.</p><p>"The windows don't open any wider than this!" She said.</p><p>"They don’t? Then how do so many of our suspects escape from these places?" Steve frowned.</p><p>They were high off the ground but they were only two floors up.  The windows had safety latches to stop anyone falling out. It also prevented anyone climbing in. </p><p>Grace chuckled. She folded her arms at him. "Does Danno know you’re here?"</p><p>Steve snorted. He laid his arms over the top rung to lean against them. "You think Danno would let me turn up in the middle of the night with a ladder?"</p><p>"No one with sense would do that Uncle Steve," grace countered.</p><p>"No one ever said I had sense," Steve winked.</p><p>"Uncle Max is downstairs y’know. I'm sure he'd help you sneak in."</p><p>"Huh. I didn't think of that."</p><p>Grace laughed as Steve considered his options. The choice was either stay here on this ladder for the next hour or so, or until Grace was less bored and ready to sleep, or climb down and hope Max would sneak him past the nurses. They had already told Steve that visiting hours were up and he wasn't allowed in overnight. But if he were accompanied by a doctor...</p><p>Grace had climbed back into bed by the time Max guided Steve to her room. Steve didn’t need the guidance. He had visited every day so far, just like her mum and dad. She was still happy to see him though.</p><p>"Thank you Uncle Max," she smiled.</p><p>"I'm pleased to see you're well Grace," Max nodded.</p><p>She smirked, "You already said that uncle Max."</p><p>He nodded, "I have it important to reiterate when things go well, especially in something as fickle as medical care."</p><p>Grace felt a rush of affection for her uncle. He was quirky, for sure, but he was always nice. He had volunteered to come to her career day once, and he had looked after her when that ended poorly. Plus he was the only one who would tell her gory details because he quite rightly knew that was the fascinating part. She valued him deeply.</p><p>"Mahalo," she smiled.</p><p>"I still have some work to do downstairs but if you don't mind I'd like to come by later. I find the hardest part of working with the living is that their conditions change. Checking in-" Max began.</p><p>Grace interrupted to say, "I would love to see you before you leave, of course you can check in on me."</p><p>Max's smile was pleased but brimming with relief. He had never understood children well, even though he tried to, but he had understood them better than he did adults. Over time he had grown fond of Grace. She was the only one who appreciated the science behind the decay of seaweed and its role in the oceanic nitrogen cycle. </p><p>"Mahalo. I'll leave you two to it," he said.</p><p>Steve thanked him one more time as he left. Grace craned her neck to make sure he was gone before lowering her voice and smiling at Steve. </p><p>"He's what my Grammy would call an odd duck."</p><p>Steve chuckled, "A lot of people would call him something similar. But he's ohana."</p><p>Grace grinned. If her ohana had been ducks then you wouldn't have been able to pick put an odd one. Dig a little deeper under the surface and all of them were strange. That's why she loved them so much. Steve perched on the edge of her bed and set a bag by her knees.</p><p>"Did you bring snacks?" She asked hopefully. </p><p>Steve scoffed. "I brought a ladder Grace, do you really think I would forget snacks? Brought you this too."</p><p>As Steve drew his spare phone charger out of his bag Grace utterly lit up. She grabbed it in one hand, and threw her other around his shoulders. Steve chuckled.</p><p>"Careful, we don’t want you popping a stitch," he warned.</p><p>Grace plugged in the charger and set her phone down. When the light flashed on to tell her it had power her delight was palpable. Steve grinned. This midnight trip had been entirely worth it just for that smile.</p><p>"Now for the dumb question," he began. He rested a hand on her knee, and she knew what was coming before he said it. "How are you feeling?"</p><p>Grace wrinkled her nose as she tried to think of an answer. Usually she'd try to fob him off with the same "I'm fine uncle Steve stop fussing!" that she tailored to all her family members. Except Charlie.</p><p>Charlie never asked how she was because Charlie remembered what it was like when he was in hospital. It was the question he hated and that everyone asked him. Everyone except Grace.</p><p>The two of them found solace in each other by just avoiding that question altogether.</p><p>But since Steve had come all this way based on one text and brought her snacks and her phone charger with him, she figured he deserved an honest answer.<br/>She settled back in her bed, waving a gummy worm in her hand as she spoke. She got the gesturing from her father, and that worm was flopping about for a while.</p><p>"You know how when you start doing something new you’re really bad at it and then you keep getting better and better but you don’t notice until you look back at how far you've come because you think you're only ever as good as what you are now?"</p><p>"Um... I think so?" Steve said uncertainty. </p><p>"I feel like that," Grace stated. </p><p>She bit the head off of her gummy worm as she finished. Steve took a moment to go over her explanation, and he frowned apologetically. </p><p>"Sorry, I'm not sure I get it."</p><p>Grace held in a sigh. This was why she didn't try to tell adults how she felt. Danny would be baffled, Rachel would nod in a slightly patronizing why, but both would pretend that she made sense. Then they'd ask the doctor if it was something to worry about. At least Steve was  honest. He didn’t understand, but he was trying to.</p><p>She sat up slightly as she tried to find the words. "I feel fine right now. But I feel fine because this is how I expected to feel right now. Tomorrow I'll feel better and I'll look back and think oh, I was a little groggy yesterday, because I have a new perspective. I don’t have that perspective today so today I feel fine. Like, I was bored, and I knew I was bored, but I didn't know how bored until you came and now I'm not bored anymore, y’know?"</p><p>The worm had flopped around again as she tried to explain it while thinking out loud. As she finally came to a stop she looked up at Steve. He was staring at her in a way that was totally unreadable to her. She felt a little self conscious. </p><p>"You’re looking at me like I don't make sense."</p><p>Steve shook back into life as he dropped his head, shook it with a laugh, and looked back up to smile at her all at once. </p><p>"I think you make sense," he assured her, "I'm just wondering how someone with a brain injury can still think twice as fast as me."</p><p>Grace's shoulders eased as she settled back again, relieved. "Mum says it's not the size of your brain that matters, its the size of your heart."</p><p>Steve nodded, "I had a friend in the navy with a similar attitude except-"</p><p>Steve stopped his words, but left his jaw hanging open as his eyes traced Grace's face in the low light. He let out a breath as he closed his mouth. Grace frowned at him.</p><p>"Except what?" She challenged. </p><p>"Except the end of his phrase wasn't appropriate for minors. Pass me a gummy worm," he said.</p><p>Grace scoffed at her uncle. <em>"Please."</em></p><p>Steve rolled his eyes, hid a smirk, and repeated, <em>"Please."</em></p><p>"Better!" She praised.</p><p>Steve snorted as Grace tossed a gummy worm his way. Charlie had better manners than him sometimes. Then again he was used to barking orders and expecting them instantly fulfilled. There wasn’t much use for manners in the military. </p><p>Grace eyed him thoughtfully as he picked through the gummy worms, looking for a red one. Red were his favourite. Steve had been in her life since she was eight years old. Sometimes she'd see him daily. Sometimes up to three months could go by on radio silence and all she'd hear was Danny worrying about him. Back then Grace hadn't thought much of it - she was worrying for him just as much - but now she wondered how much Danny was worrying about her right now. If Steve worried about her like she had about him, that would explain why he was here. </p><p>Sometimes she wondered who she would be if he wasn't in her life. Someone unrecognisable that’s for sure. The more she thought about it, the more she realised how lucky she was to have found herself a part of such a large and loving ohana. One she never would have known if Uncle Steve hadn't picked Danno as a partner all those years ago.</p><p>"Mahalo uncle Steve."</p><p>Steve glanced up at her. Half a gummy worm was hanging from his mouth. He moved a hand to his mouth to bite it off, but he spoke with his mouthful.</p><p>"Well you didn’t answer my text, what else was I gonna do, go to bed and forget about it? C'mon, this is what family's for."</p><p>He shrugged like it was nothing. Grace's memory was still a little foggy, but she could remember New Jersey clearer than ever at the moment. She couldn't think of a single event that the whole family gathered together for outside of Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. She couldn’t imagine either of her aunts visiting her after dark, let alone bringing snacks. Not even Uncle Matty would have done something as reckless as this.</p><p>Eric might have though. She'd always had a soft spot for Eric. He used to put her on his shoulders to lift her up high enough to steal Grammys cookies as long as she got one for him too.</p><p>But Uncle Steve was something else altogether. </p><p>"Can I ask you a serious question though Uncle Steve?" Grace asked quietly. </p><p>Steve felt his stomach drop. He swallowed the worm down and nodded. "Of course."</p><p>Grace licked her lips nervously. "How's Danno? Uncle Lou said he'd never get me out of his sight again. Is he okay?"</p><p>"Um..."</p><p>Briefly, Steve considered lying to her.  After all from a hospital bed with a dozen stitches in her head and a brain injury she couldn’t do much to ease his worry. Besides she would know he was lying. Any time she wasn’t directly in front of Danny he was worried. Sometimes even then. And she had nearly died. Lying was obvious and unfair and he couldn't bring himself to do it.</p><p>"He's worried. Of course he is, do you expect anything else?" Steve asked.</p><p>Grace sighed. "I guess not..."</p><p>She hung her head. A wave of guilt washed over her. If she had just slowed for the bend they wouldn't be in this mess. But she hadn't realised how fast she was going, and she was scared, and then she had scared her parents and her uncle and it wasn't fair.</p><p>"Hey, look, Danno's Danno. He worried about you getting hurt in a car accident from the day you were allowed to leave the hospital in a car seat. It's the first big concern any father faces, the drive home from the hospital. Its the first time your baby faces the big wide world. It's scary. And his biggest fear almost came true. He nearly lost you to a car accident. Do you blame him for being worried?"</p><p>Grace didn’t answer, and she didn’t lift her head. Steve's heart went out to her. The idiot who caused this was in jail, and would be for as long as Steve could keep him there, but it didn't feel long enough. Not when Grace looked this upset. </p><p>Steve reached over to raised her chin with a crooked finger. Gently he said, "He's also really proud of you."</p><p>Grace sighed and rolled her head away from him, "I know. He's always proud of me."</p><p>"I’m proud of you too," Steve said. "It took guts to stand up for a girl you barely know against a girl you know well. It took guts to stand up against that asshole in the diner-"</p><p>Grace's head snapped up and her eyes widened in surprise. </p><p>"Uncle Steve!" Grace giggled. </p><p>"Oh he was an asshole, there's no other word for it," Steve grinned.</p><p>It wasn't that she hadn't heard adults swear before, or didn’t swear herself, but Steve was always <em>so careful</em> not to slip up in front of her. The Navy gave him a foul mouth but he had tried so hard to tame it and keep it under control at work, and he damn near formed a stutter trying to stop himself swearing in front of Grace. To hear him swear felt like hearing a teacher say a rude word in class. Grace's face lit up with the same kind of giddy excitement, which melted Steve's insides and warmed his heart.</p><p>"You’re gonna get in trouble. A whole dollar in the swear jar!" She giggled.</p><p>"I'll pay it twice- in fact-" Steve paused as he shuffled on the bed to reach his back pocket. He fished five dollars out of his wallet and pressed it into Grace's hand. "hold onto that, I've got four more swear words from that!"</p><p>Grace chuckled as she held up the note to the light and corrected, "Three."</p><p>Steve frowned, "Four."</p><p>Grace shook her head, "You said asshole twice."</p><p>"Now you owe a dollar too," Steve grinned. </p><p>Grace's hands fell into her lap as she grinned at the audacity, "See I told you you'd get me in trouble!"</p><p>"It's okay, I'll cover you in this. But now we've only got two so we should hold onto them," Steve said.</p><p>"Whatever you say uncle Steve," Grace chuckled.</p><p>She tucked the five dollar bill safely into the book she was reading, like a book mark. In there no one would notice it. Then she settled back on the bed and yawned.</p><p>"Tired?" He asked.</p><p>Grace shook her head. It was a lie. They both knew it. Neither wanted to end their visit yet though, so they pretended to believe the lie.</p><p>"I am proud of you y'know," Steve said, earnestly. </p><p>"I know. I learned from the best," Grace said.</p><p>Steve leaned back against the rails at the end of the bed and chuckled. The movement put him in the path of the bedside lamp. In the light, Grace could see his face clearer. She could see the worry lines forming on his brow. She could see the bags under his eyes. She could see the flicker in his eyes that he tried to keep from her. She could see just how tired and racked with worry he had been.</p><p>Grace bit her lip. When she glanced at her phone and saw five unread messages she knew who they were from before she even checked. For all the time she spent thinking about her parents worrying about her, she hadn't thought about her uncle. </p><p>And yet here he was anyway, just because she wanted someone to talk to.</p><p>"Uncle Steve?" She said, quietly.</p><p>"Yeah Gracie?" He asked. </p><p>She could heard the yawn he tried to stifle. It didn't help ease the guilt in her chest. Just because she wasn't tired enough to sleep didn’t mean he wasn't. </p><p>"I'm sorry I scared you," she muttered. </p><p>Steve glanced up at her in surprise. For a split second he realised she knew too much, but he thought he could blag his way out of it by forcing a smile. </p><p>"Scared me? You didn't- you didn't scare me. I knew you'd pull through," he lied.</p><p>Grace gave him a soft smile for the effort, but that was enough to call him a liar and wipe his smile off of his face.</p><p>"No you didn’t. You hoped I'd pull through. You were just as scared as mom and Danno. I saw it in your eyes when you hugged me. And it's two am. You should be at home sleeping but you're here."</p><p>She laid the fact out calmly and quietly before him. They were undeniable, even if he wished they weren't. He shrugged.</p><p>"You needed me."</p><p>"You’re scared that if I sleep unsupervised I won't wake up."</p><p>Steve flinched instinctively, and tilted his head to look away from her. His heart was tangled in his chest. He felt like he had swallowed it by accident. Even the idea of losing Grace made him want to throw up. He wanted to deny it but his silence was deafening. Steve felt her hand brush against his.</p><p>"It's okay," she whispered, "I am too."</p><p>Steve looked up at her, eyes wide and edged with tears that glistened in the light of the lamp. He couldn't bare the idea, and he wanted to banish it from her mind entirely. </p><p>"Gracie..."</p><p>His voice cracked. That self betrayal made his chest heave. Grace's soft chuckle made it worse.</p><p>"It's okay Uncle Steve. I can tell you that I'm scared and I want you here because you'll tell me I'm being stupid. I'm in a hospital full of medical experts, Uncle Max is downstairs right now and he's an actual doctor too. What can you do to keep me safe that they can't? But you'll stay anyway because I'm scared. And that's enough to make me feel better. Right?"</p><p>Steve wanted to cry. Whatever he had imagined happening tonight when he hurried out of his house with a ladder attached to his truck and Grace's favourite gummy worms in a bag with his phone charger just in case that's why she wasn't replying - this wasn't it. Steve was a big strong fully grown man. A Navy SEAL. Toughest of the tough. He had survived hell week unblemished. </p><p>And a seventeen year old girl could make him cry. </p><p>He twisted her hand gently so he could wrap his around it and hold her securely in a way he knew it wouldn't hurt her.</p><p>"You're too smart for your own good sometimes," he smiled.</p><p>"If you can't stay you can go," she assured him, "You've brought my charger, I can call Danno-"</p><p>"No chance. I can make myself comfortable in a chair, he'll just have to bitch about it tomorrow," Steve stated firmly.</p><p>Even if Steve had been willing to leave, which he wasn't, he really didn't think Danny would be able to handle this kind of conversation with the gravitas it needed. Grace wasn't a kid right now. She was just a person. A scared person. Danny wouldn't be able to see that. Grace snorted, which was the perfect way to mask the catch in her throat.</p><p>"Careful, we only have one curse left."</p><p>"Let's save it for when that mean old nurse comes in and finds me in the morning huh?" he winked.</p><p>She giggled and nodded. Steve chuckled back. He stood up and cleared the bed for her as Grace laid back down. She couldn’t take much conversation before she was completely exhausted, but at least it wasn’t mind numbing boredom. </p><p>Steve tucked her in as gently as he could. He was too scared to kiss her hairline like he usually would, so instead he lifted her hand to kiss the back of it and squeezed it gently. Grace gave a soft chuckle as her eyelids began to feel heavy. </p><p>She watched her uncle take the pillows off of the couch that was pushed up against the wall beside the bathroom. He laid himself down on it, plumping up a pillow for his head as he did. Once again, she felt a rush of gratitude for him. No one else was this stubborn in their affections.</p><p>"Thank you Uncle Steve," she muttered.</p><p>Even with the beeping of the machines constantly monitoring her, her voice was loud in the quiet of the room. </p><p>"We're ohana Grace," Steve stated. "I'll do anything for ohana."</p><p>"And here I thought it was because you loved me."</p><p>"That too."</p><p>The two of them chuckled softly, and settled down in their respective spots. Whatever worry still hung in the air was eased by the simple knowledge that she was not alone. That was enough to let her finally rest.</p><p>Max was true to his word, as always. He came by to check in on Grace before he went home. He had expected to find her asleep and alone. He was half right. She was curled up on the bed sound asleep and looking a lot more relaxed than she had earlier in the day. Steve, on the other hand, was laying across a couch that was way too small for him, with his legs heaved over the edge to dangle in the air. He was also using a pillow as a cover. Max smiled to himself. </p><p>It was reassuring to know that in his time away no one had changed.</p><p>Max left the room to find a supply closest nearby. He found a blanket on one of the higher shelves, and brought it back for Steve. Max was pleased to know that he could do something small to look out for them both.</p><p>After all, they were ohana.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>